Basically what the title says... Taking both roleplaying and game mechanics into consideration, what's your opinion on the subject matter?
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Do you want them to? I mean, I generally just ignore the whole secret identity aspect and use the Vigilante as Fighter+ or Rogue+.
In most campaigns, it's probably in your best interest to let your party known who you are.
Just one example:
We had a character death in our current Hell's Rebels campaign. It was the vigilante. Why? Because he did something sneaky on his own and got defeated, and all his special gear taken (his bat-suit, basically). As a result, we happened to meet his social character, who we enlisted, because reasons. In-character we maintained the pretense that we didn't know the two faces were one person. So, we assigned the social identity a task, and he decided it was a good idea to go try to recover his gear. So he could keep his secret. From us. The bad guys already knew who he was because they took his mask. Needless to say, he got killed trying to get his gear back. If he had just said "hey, I am that other guy", we would have worked with him to get his gear back.
Prince Yyrkoon gives an optimization point; social identities are kind of stupid and clunky at 1st level, and moving forward, it just simply becomes an annoying formality that you try to pull off and find it sucks, and then when you finally are able to pull it off the way you originally wanted to, it becomes "Wow, I finally did it, I'm glad I wasted X of my character levels to do something that would've been much more convenient by 1st or 3rd level."
Anguish gives a proper point. Batman wouldn't have been nearly as effective a character if he worked solo all the time. The fact that Robin, Alfred, etc. knows his identity (and helps him as needed) only serves as a boon, and not as a detriment (like the concept thinks). If you've seen the Flash and Arrow T.V. series, you'll see several subjects that further reinforce that point.
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It depends heavily on the nature of the game.
In a game where the PCs travel around, you absolutely should tell the party, since they're gonna logic it out pretty quick anyway, or seriously defy suspension of disbelief, or start thinking whichever identity they aren't friends with is stalking them as an enemy agent. None of which are super good.
In a more sedentary game, you should definitely not do anything stupid to avoid telling them (which is what the guy in the above example did), but it's a bit less essential to tell them everything barring specific situations making it advantageous to tell them.
I think the real key isn't to tell the other PCs but to avoid becoming invested in not telling them. If it's ever an advantage for them to know, tell them. If it's not, do what you feel like.
I get the optimization bit, but the plan is to stick with the fluff of the class. The game I'm about to play is a somewhat comedic pirate game and I think that hiding my secret identity can create some really funny scenarios, but at the same time I think it could be detrimental to the game, so here's why I'm asking your advice.
I don't really see Robin, Alfred, Felicity, Cisco, etc as being party members, though. They are more like cohorts and that team that a vigilante can get with one of those talents, IMO.
Robin literally fights alongside Batman, and became Nightwing/The Red Hood/Batman/Etc.
I think telling your party is a good idea, because they're going to figure it out sooner or later, and when they do, you're going to look all kinds of shady for not letting them in on it.
Vigilante only works in a normal party under a few specific conditions-
1) Everyone is a vigilante (or otherwise has a dual identity). Everyone is in on the gimmick together.
1.a) It is a Gestalt game. Vigilante is everyone's second class.
2) Secret Identity is ignored unless the game really requires some kind of social infiltration. In that case, the "secret identity" operates as a disguise with a very good cover identity (think James Bond).
That's about it.
I've been toying with a Cleric of Calistria build that would actually be a Devout Pilgrim Cleric 1/ Serial Killer Vigilante 5, whose backstory would be that he is chasing after the murderer of his wife and child. The twist is that he actually found and tortured the murderer long ago, but enjoyed it so much he never stopped.
So every night he will venture out and "search for the killer" while his party sleeps, but as the party will notice he'll always be just one step behind.
I'll basically try to make a character who functions while using only the Social side near the party.
Gonna be tough, and not something I would try without the consent of the GM.
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If it isn't some kind of plot hook, then I believe it would be wiser if the party knew of the Vigilante's secret identity.
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@Doomed Hero
James Bond? But that's the guy who straight out blows his cover every time he presents himself!
James Bond? But that's the guy who straight out blows his cover every time he presents himself!
He still has all the credentials to get him into wherever he needs to be. He just uses his own name, and is only famous to main villains. It's absolutely a vigilante social identity derivative. His "costume change" is just putting on his tactical gear.
I was thinking of using Many Guises to interact with the party... a strange old man tells them of "The Crow", a crewmate - they think - is overhearing their conversation, the fancy nobleman aboard who paid for passage talks to them openly and strikes an unusual friendship with the buccaneers. Then, all of sudden, they spot enemy sails approaching. The nobleman runs and locks himself in the cabin, the crew gets all agitated, and when the enemies come, out of the shadows comes The Crow himself, surprising both enemies and allies alike.
It's somewhat silly, I know, but believe me, this game is supposed to be that way.
I don't think there is a good way to not have the party know.
I've been playing Hell's Vengeance with a Vigilante, and he started off trying to keep his other identity secret. The first time he tried to use his other persona with us my character was immediately like "Why would we want you to bring in another "friend" who we don't know and don't trust in our very secretive mission?" It went south and basically ended up with "meta"-reasoning away all the logical inconsistency of why we shouldn't know both of his identities. I gave up the argument and in character we "don't know". Which I think is hugely bullshit, but I guess it doesn't really matter so I just don't worry about it too much.
I say go for it. I did it before the Vigilante even existed, with a tiefling inquisitor. I played three different NPCs so the player never quite knew who i was until later. You just have to act the superhero and save/assist the party. And it happens a lot in fiction, so it's really not a stretch for your friends to play along. Just watch Batman/Daredevil.
It's fun when your friends buy in on it.
If the party has any brains at all, they'd catch on when the court fop who's been adventuring with them keeps disappearing during combat and someone else appears out of nowhere to stand beside them in the fray and then suddenly leaves and the court fop reappears. It's a bad mechanic, in my opinion (for what's it worth). I totally agree with Prince Yrkoon who posted earlier in this thread. (And cool name, btw. I loved the Elric books).
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On the side against telling...
Less people who know your true identity are less people that can be tricked, mind-scanned, or coerced into ratting you out. It's reduces the chinks in your figurative social armor.
On the side for telling...
"Okay, who the Hells are you, where do you keep coming from, and why, oh why, does that 'Dark Raven' prick keep running off?!"
On the side against telling...
Less people who know your true identity are less people that can be tricked, mind-scanned, or coerced into ratting you out. It's reduces the chinks in your figurative social armor.
On the side for telling...
"Okay, who the Hells are you, where do you keep coming from, and why, oh why, does that 'Dark Raven' prick keep running off?!"
And in that vein you have 3 or 4 people asking that second set of questions, while the 1st set of reasons only matter to one character. For whom, there aren't any real penalties to the mechanics of their class if people know their social identity.
In most campaigns, it's probably in your best interest to let your party known who you are.
Just one example:
We had a character death in our current Hell's Rebels campaign. It was the vigilante. Why? Because he did something sneaky on his own and got defeated, and all his special gear taken (his bat-suit, basically). As a result, we happened to meet his social character, who we enlisted, because reasons. In-character we maintained the pretense that we didn't know the two faces were one person. So, we assigned the social identity a task, and he decided it was a good idea to go try to recover his gear. So he could keep his secret. From us. The bad guys already knew who he was because they took his mask. Needless to say, he got killed trying to get his gear back. If he had just said "hey, I am that other guy", we would have worked with him to get his gear back.
That reminds me of power rangers. The villains almost always know who the rangers are but the rangers still keep a secret identity for the lols.
I think you give the party plausible deniability. Most members of the Justice League know that Batman and Bruce Wayne are tight (Wayne paid for their space station), but relatively few people (Superman, various telepaths, etc.) know that they're actually the same person. Aquaman may not know that Batman is Bruce Wayne, but he does know that if he needs to get in contact with Wayne the person to ask is Batman.
Later on you can hire somebody to wear a hat of disguise to appear as your secret identity in various scenarios in order to cultivate that uncertainty. If your hireling is exposed, "I hired a body double to avoid unnecessary attention while traveling" is something a celebrity could plausibly do without secretly being a superhero.
If you want you can play it as a comedic thing, where the party not knowing your dual identity is a wink and a nod kind of thing, or something known only to trusted members of the party who agree to keep your secret from new members until they show they are trustworthy (e.g. replacements for dead PCs.)
This topic kinda reminds me of the time when in the comics Tony Stark told the world that Iron Man was his personal bodyguard, everybody (mostly) seemed to believe it, even though they were never at the same place at the same time. Silly as it was.
I'd interact exclusively with the party through my vigilante identity.
Yeah, you could use your social identity as the "Secret" one, and use it mainly for information gathering purposes.
I'd interact exclusively with the party through my vigilante identity.
I think generally you'd want to do this and just pull "I know a guy who can..." when you want your social persona to do something for the party, but I don't think you can always do this.
Like if the party is just traveling through mundane means from city A to city B, is The Stinging Shadow just going to ride a horse or sit on a wagon with the rest of the party? If not, who exactly is this Hugo Hastings fellow that just showed up? (It's going to be a hard sell to the PCs that "splitting the party while traveling" is a good idea.)
If the party needs to get into a fancy ball to thwart a plot, and the Vigilante uses her social identity to gain admittance, even if the party is already familiar with Valeria Denholm wouldn't they start to wonder where the Crimson Dove went, since she would be pretty useful in case a fight breaks out?
I'm not saying there aren't ways around this, but I think that the story has to be that eventually they're going to find out. But I think if the bad guy mind probes one of the PCs in order to find out the secret identity of Shark Mask, that you'd default that "just because the Riddler knows Batman's secret identity, doesn't mean he goes around telling anybody else" so the Vigilante can protect their secret identity by neutralizing the lone villain who figured it out.